Horizon 2020
Item 5 is a report from Aileen McLeod, who recently attended a conference on horizon 2020 on behalf of the committee. I thank her, because she came home from Brussels, went straight back out to Brussels a day later and did it all in one day. Well done, Aileen.
Thank you very much. I put on the record my thanks to the committee for the opportunity to represent it and speak on its behalf at this timely policy event at Scotland house in Brussels, which came the day after the Commission published its proposals for a new horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation.
I also say for the Official Report that the conference was organised jointly by the Scottish Government’s EU office in Brussels and Scotland Europa. It was a very busy event with a mix of people present from various EU institutions, devolved Government offices and the university and business sectors.
The focus of the discussion was on the need to increase the participation of SMEs in research and innovation programmes and the need to provide support from concept to market through the whole innovation and value chain. We asked how we can increase the innovation impact of SMEs and, for example, take large-scale basic research and convert it into small-scale products for commercialisation.
We also discussed how EU and national or regional instruments can be tailored to meet the needs of SMEs and research needs and how horizon 2020 can encourage and support greater collaboration between universities and SMEs. We asked whether we have the right structures or mechanisms in place to encourage such collaboration and how all that can help SMEs and business increase their uptake of research and innovation investment and spending.
I made welcoming remarks, focusing on the discussions at the committee’s recent round-table meeting at which we started our engagement with the academic, enterprise and business communities across Scotland, to see how the committee and the Parliament can best support Scotland’s stakeholders in preparing for the opportunities that will arise under the horizon 2020 programme.
The event was chaired by Julian Taylor, who is strategy director at Scottish Enterprise. There were two panels of speakers, the first of which was very much about setting the scene and looking at what support is available for innovative SMEs. We heard three different perspectives, from the European Commission, from academics and from business.
Bernd Reichert, head of unit for SMEs in the Commission’s DG research and innovation, talked about the Commission’s thinking on SME support in the horizon 2020 proposals. The Commission is keen to ensure an adequate level of SME involvement, through action such as a dedicated SME instrument, which has been inspired by the United States small business innovation research programme and focuses on the early stage. The Commission is considering how to strengthen SMEs’ capacity for innovation and at the same time promote the internationalisation of innovative SMEs that have growth potential, by upgrading the European enterprise network.
The academic perspective was provided by Professor David Gani, deputy principal of the University of Strathclyde. He is involved with the European consortium of innovative universities, which comprises 11 European universities, including Strathclyde. Strathclyde is an interesting example of an innovative university; it has specialist innovation centres, it promotes entrepreneurial activity and it runs joint postgraduate degrees. Another example is the University of Twente in the Netherlands, where the creation of business start-ups is part of courses and there is a dedicated budget and support for spin-off activities by bachelor of science students. There have been more than 700 start-ups during the past 25 years.
We also heard about Linköping University in Sweden, which has a strong tradition of focusing research on issues of high scientific and societal relevance. The university runs an entrepreneurship and new business development programme for students and researchers that has created more than 500 companies since 1994. The examples of innovative universities were useful.
The business perspective was provided by Dr Maren Hunds from the European Business and Innovation Centre Network, which supports SMEs to innovate and collaborate. There is very much a feeling that the role of SMEs in innovation is not understood and that universities do one thing and SMEs do another.
The second panel focused on case studies, including examples of current practice in Scotland. We heard from Siobhan Jordan, who is the director of the interface project, and Ana Coelho, who runs the connect-EU programme to promote Catalan participation in framework programme 7, through the agency for competitiveness that the Catalan Government set up. Interface is interesting. It acts as a central hub, which connects businesses with Scotland’s universities and research institutes, and it has initiated more than 400 company and university collaborations.
A number of challenges for businesses were identified. Many businesses do not know how to connect with suitable expertise. They do not know what academic expertise is available and they do not have the time or money to find out more. There was a discussion about possible solutions, such as the development of innovative programmes as a low-cost mechanism for engagement with more businesses throughout Scotland and the use of new and multiple online channels to try to open up business access to university services.
A couple of recommendations for horizon 2020 were made. A key point was that universities can help to underpin commercialisation but do not actually do it. Education and dissemination of information are needed and graduates need to connect with industry.
We also need to ensure that entrepreneurship is part and parcel of students’ degree courses and that there is an exchange of best practice and evidence. We need to keep it simple and make it easy for our SMEs to engage and keep to their timescales. We also need to be able to offer targeted services for them, as they all have different needs, and enable them to become more business oriented.
That was the thrust of the discussion in Brussels last Thursday.
16:30
That was a busy day.
That was a comprehensive report. Aileen McLeod obviously had a busy day. Do members have comments on her report?
She can do mine next time.
The report raised many points that we should incorporate into the work that we are doing on horizon 2020 and mentioned some key themes that chime exactly with what we want to get to.
We can draw them from the Official Report.
Yes, to allow Aileen to draw breath. Aileen, do you have anything else to say?
No, that is pretty much it.
Thank you very much. We appreciate somebody going there who understands how it all works. That is important for us.